This heavy brass ring appears to be three thin rings joined together with a small clockwork face on top. Each ring is covered in ten runes and can rotate, clicking with each turn. The face is made up of two tiny rubies and an open brass rectangle resembling a mouth displaying a single combination of three runes at any given time.
To lock the ring and activate its powers, the wearer must spend one minute concentrating on a combination of runes from the three thinner rings and then rotate the rings to a different combination. Once locked, the ring can only be removed by the wearer rotating the three rings to the specified combination, break enchantment, limited wish, miracle or wish. If the wearer dies, the ring can be removed after one hour of trying combinations.
If a creature attempts to remove (or disarm) an item from the wearer’s possession without permission (no action to grant permission) the ring’s face animates and audibly protests, chirping and whirling for 1 round; it also constricts the wearer’s finger enough to waken the wearer from a normal sleep. The creature must make a DC 19 Will save or be unable to remove any items from the wearer for 10 rounds. This is a mind-affecting, compulsion enchantment.
Once per day, through a series of facial expressions and clicks the ring can provide the distance (clicking more frequently with proximity) and direction to the location of a stolen item. The item must be within 1 mile and have been in the wearer’s possession for at least 1 hour within the past 24 hours.

That's funny you should say that. While it may not have been a serious thought, one of the ideas I toyed with today was a Ring of the Fourth Wall...

Ring of the Fourth Wall

Description...Fluff text...
From time to time the wearer hears a voice in his head that is no more than a single word. Words like "run", "left", "trapped", "liar", "rot-grubs" and the like are often mysterious and disturbing to the wearer but more times than not are insightful and eventually prove to be prophetic.

This ring provides a +4 bonus to initiative and once per day, the player of the PC wearing the ring can say one word that is mentally heard by the PC. The wearer has no control over this power and the wearer is not compelled to act on the word.

I actually jumped over to this forum to take a break from voting--great comments all around.

I made Dedicated Voter in a day and a half. After seeing a couple of hundred pairs and starting to see duplicates it just comes down to the timer. Maybe once a voter hits Dedicated or maybe Marathon, the timer can be cut down to 30 seconds?

As far as the items, I just have to give credit to everyone who entered, because good, bad or ugly most the entries spark my own imagination--my notebook is filling up fast!

On the heels of TPK Games' release of "Laying Waste: A Guide to Critical Combat" is the official app for your Android phone or tablet!

This app puts all the fantastic and well-balanced critical effects from "Laying Waste" at your fingertips. It even allows you to optionally roll the various associated effects' durations, subtables and saving throws as well.

Special thanks to TPK Games for developing a quick, fun and versatile new critical system and for providing support throughout the development process.

I'm versed in both the full core Pathfinder as well as the Beginner version and have played in a couple of APs and several modules/scenarios. I likely wouldn't run too many core modules/AP with Beginner rules, but as you said, it can be done with modification.

For instance, I don't think it would be too hard to tweak the core Crypt of the Everflame module for the Begginer Box.

I have to give all the credit to Paizo, not only for the adventure but for the Beginner Box itself--it really is a great product that has helped me share my love of the game with my kids.

While it may not seem that Paizo supports the "basic" version of the game, the fact that they release the rules under OGL and CUP allows others, such as myself, to carry the torch and give back to the community.

Also, I can't fault them for having other priorities and areas of focus--not, that I wouldn't mind a little more "official" support.

1) Cast a spell from a scroll
2) Cast a spell from a wand
3) Cast a spell from a rod

Since you said "cast" in the cases above, I won't address retrieving the items.

Pretty much in all cases you can do 1-3 with one hand. In some cases, you may be able to attach the scroll to the inside of the buckler and not need any hands, though you may still need a free hand to designate or touch targets.

Lord Lupus the Grey wrote:

How many hands do I need to...

And what penalties will I have trying to cast it with my character's left hand with strapped buckler holding a weapon in other hand?

How does it actually work?

No penalties--unless you used the rod as a mace or club, in which case you take a -1 penalty to attack (along with penalty for fighting with two weapons) and lose the buckler's AC until the start of you next turn.

A case can be made that you lose the buckler's AC when casting from a scroll because of the "final gestures" requirement, which might be considered the same as the somatic components of actually casting a spell (see buckler).

Lord Lupus the Grey wrote:

How many hands do I need to...

P. S. In other hand the character wield's an Arcane Duelist's bnded weapon, so he can use it fo somatic components.

That would address the case of losing the buckler's AC bonus when using a scroll.

Hello. You will get a better response posting to the Advice or Rules Questions sub-forums. This sub-forum is generally for questions regarding the Beginner Box (which doesn't have Monk without houserules).

However, since you asked...

Thinking about a sparring system is a bit more than I would want to come with as a GM, I think I would abstract it and have your PC make a Perform check.

It's based on Cha, which would represent your PC's ability to sell his training. Then there might be a matter (i.e. percent chance) or finding an interested student, though you could actively seek one.

I might play with the bonus on the preform check and throw in Monk level and maybe a situational +2 if you have a specific feat the trainee was interested in.

The Perform skill has a set of DCs that give a good indication of what training might be worth based on the check result.

Not to take anything away from Paizo's great products, but I'm not sure there is enough demand for them to invest in a PC version of their apps.

I own the Critical Fumble and Critical Hit decks as well as the mobile apps (iCrit and iFumble). I agreed with some other folks that thoses apps should be combined so I created my own app, CritGen! for iOS and Android.

I also had a few request for a PC version of CritGen!, so here's a link if you're interested.

Shears of the Hairless Hag
This one was just weird. It does so much that it strays into SAK territory, but to your credit it stays remarkably tight in terms of theme for a SAK. I’m not sure how the scar hex ability is useful since you would usually be using it on yourself to take advantage of the grapple ability. Also is there a limit to the number of creature’s whose hair you can take advantage of having collected? If there is not there needs to be, since the scar hex has a hard limit of INT mod for a reason.
Verdict: Lots of mechanical holes and although the theme is pretty good it does not quite make up for those problems.

Thanks for taking the time to review my item. I can't say I disagree with anything you've said, but I can provide a little insight as to what I was thinking.

SAK? - Yep. However, if I'f I've learned anything in the past several RPG Superstar contests, the judges always seem to vote for what the community would call SAK (see Death Mask this year).

I always hope to overcome that with a creative idea and a little mojo--though I've yet to find the magic formula.

Scar Hex - This is most useful for witches and other characters that can use hexes (magus?) through the connection. I've played witches, this ability is useful (cure wounds at distance, scry on villains you've let go, generally make life hell for a creature whose hair you possess.

Scar Hex Limit - I always overwrite mechanics (or so my friends tell me) to cover as many questions as possible. In the draft I made it clear that the scar ability of the item had the same limit as the scar hex. Absent that text, I hoped a reasonable GM would see the limit in the scar hex text and limit it the same. Clearly, I just made it harder by omitting it, but I was already at 300 words. My item for next year will only have 150 words! :)

I appreciated the premise of this item and I could see using it as a GM as part of a plot, I felt the execution was off on several points.

As soon as I saw the name, I thought of the spell illusory script , but I suppose suggestion works too. However, suggestion is 3rd level which should put the caster level of the item at least at 5th. Also, the durations of the numerous abilities seemed long and I somehow felt there should be three Will saves for: follow the words of the pamphlet, show it to a friend, charm person.

While the 7 day expiration merits a cost reduction, I think the item was still priced too low.

Overall, I think this item was well balanced and cost-appropriate. I like the imagery of the dove and its effects, though I wasn’t entirely sure that the -5 penalty on Bluff checks was really a hindrance as I'd just have my PC take the bracelet off before attempting to bluff. Otherwise, well done, I voted for this one quite a bit.

I would absolutely want this, but the price and the mythic tier were just things I didn’t' have enough experience with to know if it was balanced. On first glance I thought it was an artifact and during voting more times than not a cheaper item with just a couple of well-focused abilities won out.

Wildly imaginative and creative; I liked it. I don't know if it needed the alarm aspect, but I can see how that fits in. Seems like the number of uses for the swapping should be limited. An at-will dimension door, even with the limitation of needing the mannequin and the reduced range might cost out at about 100,000 gp in my estimates.

These 8 inch, cold iron shears are made of a single piece of curved metal; two sharp blades joined by a taut half-ring that allows the blades to spring open after being squeezed together. Etchings in the blades depict the face of a hideous hag.

Once per day, as a standard action, the bearer can use the shears to cut a lock of her hair and have it regrow on a living creature within 100 feet not already under this effect (DC 16 Will save negates).

When cutting her hair, the bearer may take 1d3 points of Charisma damage to use the shears an additional time per day (up to a total of five uses per day).

By concentrating (up to 11 rounds), as long as the target remains within 100 feet and line of sight, the hair can be manipulated as dexterously as a human hand allowing it to manipulate items on the target or to attack the target (only) as strangling hair, but using the bearer's character level and Intelligence modifier (regardless of class). Additionally, when the hair succeeds on a grapple check, it can blind, deafen or strangle the target for 1 round; a strangled target cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components.

If the bearer has some of the target's hair, the target takes a -2 penalty on its Will save to resist the shears. If the hair was cut with the shears, the penalty is doubled.

Finally, a witch has a supernatural link to creatures whose hair she possesses and collected with the shears, gaining the benefits of the scar hex.

Wait...so what does it mean if the date by your item is recent or earlier?

The dates I put up in the right column is the most recent date I've seen the item.

Looks like 2 pre-cull or miss spelled items remain. So the total now seems to be 502. I don't suppose a programmer can come along and confirm?

I can't say if there are more than 502 items, but assuming that each item had an equal (or near equal) chance to appear since the cull, 502 is the minimum. I have independently validated the 502 list more than once from my own list of votes.

I may not make Champion Voter, but at least I made a solid 3000+ run at it!

Today I added one more item that wasn't on the current list. Hopefully, that gives someone renewed hope.

Also, I'm pretty sure based on probability that a couple of the items in the list are either pre-Cull or an error and that the final list is (or is only slightly above) 502 items items. I had close to this number last week, but then we had a dump of pre-cull items that made things fun :)

Finally, just to verify the list, I've gathered the full text of each item since this weekend--well, at least 498 of them. Hopefully, I can get the last few before voting closes today or else I'll pick them up when they appear in the "Critique my Item" thread in a couple of weeks.

Thanks again to Scarletrose for getting the DB started and to everyone who put in their time to make it better.

Thanks for the effort. I considered doing something like this, but I somehow felt that it might run afoul of DQ. Plus I just assumed Paizo owned all these item names as part of the submission to the contest.

It seems to me that part of the voting mechanism is to have entrants keep voting until they see their item ;) At least that's how I made Marathon voter!

I'll tell you a secret. You can adjust on the fly. Start out with 2-3 goblins and if your party plows through them, have 1 or 2 more spring out. If things go rough for the party forget the addition.

No matter how any designer or DM tries, no encounter plan is going to be "perfect". Eventually you'll get an idea of what your players and their PCs can and can't handle. You'll also have a sense of dramatic flow. I mean, do you really want the party to be wiped out in their first session, in the first 10 minutes because of encounter design or bad dice rolls. While some people may say that

Rarely, I mean rarely, you may have the PCs be dramatically rescued by the arrival of an NPC or an unexpected retreat by the bad guys, but if the PCs were the ones who got themselves into trouble (maybe by calling the Prince a loud-mouth) and not just ambushed by surprised, don't pull any punches!

A little surprised to see I'm the only one that tackled the highest end of the encounter range, but hey I'm okay with that =)

Looks like a nice mix in here.

Congrats Orthos. I think the limiting factor for me was that most of my higher level ideas, perhaps due to the creatures having more abilities, used up more of the word count. Nice job on pulling a higher level encounter off.

Lets say you cast a spell (or use a SLA/Supernatural ability) on someone. He doesnt spot or hear you casting it (distance too far away, silent/still spell, etc). He succeeds at the spell save and there is no effect.

1.Does he know someone used a spell on him?

2.Is he able to identify the person who did it?

1) mkenner is correct

2) A target with Knowledge: Arcana can attempt a check with a DC equal to 25 + Spell Level to identify the spell that just targeted it.

However, this may not identify the source, unless the spell came from a spellcaster who was near enough thtat the target may have seen movement from a Somatic component or heard the Verbal components of the spell being cast.

Depending on the creatures involved, there may or may not be any treasure.

Each creature has a Treasure rating, something like: None, Half, Standard, Double, Triple, etc. This typically refers to the Medium progression column of the Treasure Values per Encounter Table.

Example: If your group fought a CR 5 troll which has "Treasure: Standard", you would look up an Average Party Level of 5 and find 1,550 gp.

So as a DM, you could build a reward worth rougly 1,550 gp. Since some of your encounters might have no treasure, you can decide to put a little more (or less) in a given encounter.

Also, as a DM, if the creature is intelligent and some of the treasure is magic gear, I make sure that the creature uses it.

If the Troll's treasure rating was Double, then the treasure amount would be 2 x 1,550 gp = 3,100 gp.

The table, "Wealth by Level", provides a guideline for an approximate total of wealth an individual PC should have when they reach a certain level. So for instance, it is recommended that a 2nd level PC have about 1,000gp of wealth--however, this is wholly within your control as DM.